Makes 5 servings
We can all thank legendary CIA pastry chef instructor, Dieter Schorner, for reinvigorating the United States’ collective love of crème brûlée as pastry chef of New York City’s famed Le Cirque in the 1980s. Enjoy our classic version, but don’t be afraid to add spices or other flavorings to find your inner Chef Schorner.
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- Pinch salt
- 1/2 vanilla bean
- 3 egg yolks, beaten
- 1 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus more as needed
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F.
- In a saucepan, combine the cream and salt and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring gently with a wooden spoon. Remove the pan from the heat. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise, scrape the seeds from the pod, and add both the scraped seeds and the pod to the cream. Allow to infuse for 10 minutes.
- Return the saucepan to the heat and bring the heavy cream mixture to a boil.
- In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. Temper the egg mixture by gradually adding about one-third of the hot cream mixture, whisking constantly. Return the tempered egg mixture to the remaining cream mixture in the saucepan. Strain the custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and then ladle it into five 6-ounce creme brulee ramekins, filling them three-quarters full.
- Place the custards in a baking pan and pour enough water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins to make a water bath. Be careful not to splash any water into the custard. Bake until just set, 20 to 25 minutes.
- Remove the custards from the water bath and wipe the ramekins dry. Wrap each custard in plastic wrap and refrigerate until fully chilled.
- To finish the crème brûlée, evenly coat the surface of each custard with a thin layer (1⁄16 inch) of sugar. Use a propane torch to melt and caramelize the sugar.
